I guess that we can just agree to disagree in regards to the Vandy game. The officials did not cost the Dawgs that game. Poor special teams, lackluster O-line play, poor special teams and Murray struggling were the undoing of the Dawgs. And the Mizzou Tigers had a big hand in the Vandy game as well.

Agreed, but I’m with Skeptic that one call that goes against you shouldn’t be the crux of beating Vanderbilt. If we have a crucial call that goes against us and we lose to Georgia Southern, are we all supposed to still sit around and complain about officiating? I get that Vandy is/was improved, but c’mon we sound pathetic.

The call definitely made the difference. Without the call we win. What I’m saying is we should never have put ourselves in a position where one bad call going against us decides the game. We still let them score the follow up touchdowns after the call.

There is a lot of rationalization going on and has gone on about that game. If the bogus targeting call wasn’t made, Vandy is off the field. Georgia takes over the ball at about the UGA 30 with 12 minutes left in the game up by 13 points. Basically, the Dawgs run out the clock or at least use enough clock so Vandy can’t score twice. The game, for all practical purposes, would have been over.

In case you didn’t notice, Vandy had a better record than us last year playing in the same division.

It was a momentum shift and huge mental change. They had essentially done nothing offensively. That was AFTER Swann fumbled the punt. We stopped them, forced a punt, fumbled the punt, stopped them again and got a bogus penalty. Sure, you’d like Swann to catch the punt, but the defense stopped the bleeding from a mistake like you’re supposed to. The change in demeanor in the stadium was staggering. There’s probably no way we lose the game up by 13 with that little time left at that point. It was a desperation 4th down attempt, they didn’t get it, and we got jobbed. The emotional let down would have actually been less had they just gotten 6 yards. They’d still have had a lot of ground to gain and make more plays. I’ve been to 100 straight. It was the worst call I’ve witnessed in those 100 and the biggest instantaneous crowd shift since the celebration in 2007, which turned the UGA fans bonkers in Jax.

Agreed. I think sometimes the officials on the field and in the booth try to make examples of players in seemingly meaningless situations. It’s not like a call like that could ever happen in a big matchup with a lot of eyes on the game. Drew definitely gave the QB a little shove that could possibly be a little late and it was close to the guys face. Perhaps a 15 yard unsportmanlike penalty could be warranted. However, they were trying to send the message about targeting and made this awful ruling. Little did they know that we’d allow Vandy to hang around and let them beat us.

And the booths are connected directly to SEC headquarters. I don’t believe the guy in the booth actually makes the call. I think he defers to Mike Slive & Steve Shaw directly, who in turn knows what’s best for future matchup TV ratings. Call me a “grassy knoll” kind of guy all you want, but I have seen to many “funny” calls.

Thanks for pointing out the article, but I just don’t understand what you are presuming. What would be their angle? I was apoplectic. I questioned why I continue to watch football in its current state. I cared less about football after that game than I have since maybe early high school and I watched many fewer SEC games because of it. I doubt I was alone. What’s more, noone outside of Georgia fans were even watching this game, so its not like there was an underdog angle drawing additional interest. ESPN didn’t even show the targeting when they did the run downs.

I disagree. The refs were encouraged to throw flags at every iffy call. If there was a possibility of an “unsportsmanlike” hit, then they were told to err on the side of safety and throw the flag. In the heat of the game at full speed I don’t fault the officials for calling the penalty. Without slow mo replays it was unclear whether our defender targeted the receiver high. Of course in the replay it proved it was a clean hit and the ejection was overturned. It was the idiotic way the rule was written that they couldn’t overturn the penalty as well. Thankfully that has been fixed. Now the Drew ejection, that is another matter. Just a horrible call.